Need some help for understanding an API call in error

[GuiliSab]

Hello,

I'm trying importing 18K assets linked on inventory items. It works for 17K but some of them failed with this error (I print the content of HTTP call):

string 'value too long for type character varying(50)' (length=45)
string 'DataError' (length=9)
string '3.6.2' (length=5)
1023:string '3.9.16' (length=6)

I send this json on the endpoint "POST", '/api/plugins/inventory/assets/':

array (size=9)
  'name' => string 'LPe12002-E fc8 Double port 8Gbits/s Fiber Cha' (length=45)
  'serial' => string 'XXXXXXXXXX' (length=10)
  'status' => string 'used' (length=4)
  'custom_fields' => 
    array (size=1)
      'id_composant_asset' => int 29874
  'tenant' => int 113
  'delivery' => int 2440
  'warranty_start' => string '2014-12-19' (length=10)
  'inventoryitem_type' => int 449
  'inventoryitem' => int 210

I don't understand why it fails. I limit the name field to 45 chars. What field must be limitied by 50 characters ? The endpoint try to insert another thing ?

Thank you for your help.

[cs-1]

Have you tried doing a POST of this data in the Swagger interface ("API Documentation") of NetBox? I tried it and didn't have any issues (I needed to change some numeric IDs but nothing else). What code / tools do you use to post this to the API?

[GuiliSab]

I tried just right now to use the swagger and have the same result:

curl -X 'POST' \
  'http://x.x.x.x/api/plugins/inventory/assets/' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'X-CSRFTOKEN: blablabla' \
  -d '{
  "name": "LPe12002-E fc8 Double port 8Gbits/s Fiber Cha",
  "serial": "XXXXXXXXXX",
  "status": "used",
  "inventoryitem_type": 449,
  "inventoryitem": 210,
  "tenant": 113,
  "delivery": 2440,
  "warranty_start": "2014-12-19",
  "custom_fields": {
    "id_composant_asset": 29874
  }
}'

{
  "error": "value too long for type character varying(50)",
  "exception": "DataError",
  "netbox_version": "3.6.2",
  "python_version": "3.9.16"
}

api-version: 3.6 
 connection: keep-alive 
 content-length: 139 
 content-type: application/json 
 cross-origin-opener-policy: same-origin 
 date: Wed,27 Sep 2023 09:53:02 GMT 
 referrer-policy: same-origin 
 server: nginx/1.20.1 
 vary: HX-Request,Cookie,origin 
 x-content-type-options: nosniff 
 x-frame-options: SAMEORIGIN 
 x-request-id: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

The swagger uses a curl request. I talk to the API in PHP with thebundle HttpClient (used by Symfony)... which used curl under the bundle.

In this case, the inventory item type and inventory items exists, so I don't think it tries to create something. But the error seems to come from a "type" field limited by 50 characters. I'm trying to search in the database what field it can be but i'm a little lost.

[cs-1]

Have you tried creating the asset on NetBox's "nbshell" on the CLI? This very likely gives you more detailed messages. See: https://netbox.rz.tu-clausthal.de/static/docs/administration/netbox-shell/ Warning: You can definitely break things in nbshell so be careful or try on a staging system.

If nbshell is no option, try looking looking at both at the inventory_item with ID 210 and at the inventory_item_type with ID 449 and try finding any strings >45. Maybe that's the problem here. Meanwhile I'll have a look at the models for both, maybe there's a discrepancy in expected string lengths.

[GuiliSab]

InventoryItem_Type "model" field: LPe12002-E fc8 Double port 8Gbits/s Fiber Channel - LOW profile InventoryItem "name" field: LPe12002-E fc8 Double port 8Gbits/s Fiber Channel - LOW profile

Both are > 50

When I only rename the InventoryItem_Type "model" field to fit under 50 characters, everything is working. Do I need to rename all my InventoryItem_Type model field ? Or is there a problem in the call to be corrected ?

Anyway, thanks for your help, I was becoming crazy :)

[cs-1]

@matejv This looks like a bug. It seems like the model in netbox-inventory has a shorter character length than the netbox internal model. I might be mistaken but this is what I reckon.

[matejv]

We have the following fields involved in this:

plugin	model	field	max_length
netbox_inventory	inventoryitem_type	model	100 chars (mandatory)
netbox_inventory	inventoryitem_type	part_number	50 chars (optional)
netbox core	inventoryitem	part_id	50 chars (optional)
netbox core	inventoryitem	name	64 chars (required)

When you assign netbox_inventory asset to netbox inventory item, the plugin populates some fields of inventoryitem, including part_id. By default it uses inventoryitem_type.part_number but if this field is blank it uses inventoryitem_type.model. See this line. If it happens that inventoryitem_type.part_number is not set and inventoryitem_type.model is longer than 50 chars this bug occurs.

It is also reproducible via GUI (if you try to use "Create inventory item" from asset detail view).

There are 2 ways I could solve this when assigning asset to inventoryitem:

1. when setting inventoryitem.part_id only use inventoryitem_type.part_number. If it's empty leave part_id empty as well.
2. when setting inventoryitem.part_id use inventoryitem_type.part_number first. It that's empty use only first 50 chars of inventoryitem_type.model.

Let me know which way you'd prefer to resolve this. I'm inclined to use method 2.

I've checked our installation - we set model and part_number fields for all our inventoryitem_types. Also all our values are way shorter than 50 chars so we've not seen this bug.

[GuiliSab]

Hi, Thank you for your response. I think the use of 50 firsts characters is not a valid solution, because in my case it doesn't work.

In my actual inventory, users have created two component types:

• LPe12002-E fc8 Double port 8Gbits/s Fiber Channel - HIGH profile
• LPe12002-E fc8 Double port 8Gbits/s Fiber Channel - LOW profile

If you take only the first 50 characters (LPe12002-E fc8 Double port 8Gbits/s Fiber Channel), it's becoming the same value, but they are two different types.

My solution was to check all types > 50 characters and rename one per one. It fixes my problem.